


Belief

by SenkiroWolf



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, MerMay, darkish?, deserted island, jack makes a very powerful friend, lots of people die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:35:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24464302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenkiroWolf/pseuds/SenkiroWolf
Summary: Gabriel just shrugged, eyes not looking away from the water's edge. "It's what's been taking people."Jack bit his lip. "We're going to die here Gabe."The man finally looked to the blond. "Jack, we're going to be fine. I promise."And somehow, Jack still believed him.
Relationships: Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Comments: 2
Kudos: 70





	Belief

He needed a vacation.

At least that’s what his few friends had told him. Just some time to himself to relax and recharge. Jack needed something to take the weight off from his parent’s deaths. So Ana booked him a trip, hoping he would relax, and hell maybe even meet a guy.

Jack finally agreed. 

It was a trip to some tropical islands to relax and swim and just soak up some sun, no matter how red it made him.

The boat they boarded was going to take them to see some whales. It travelled out rather far when a trio of islands came into view. “That island has some nice beaches to swim in. Anyone want to stop by?” Most of the tourists agreed, loving the idea of an off-schedule adventure.

Jack’s gut twisted as he looked at the island. Something felt wrong. All the young couples and singles piled off the boat onto the beautiful beach. It was soft, white sand and the water was as clear as glass. Everyone was splashing and laughing as they ran around the perfect island.

All but Jack.

He was the one that found the ruins. They were covered in foliage but the entrance to the main temple was clear. Jack was going to turn around and leave it alone, but some of the other tourists rushed in, taking pictures and chatting about adventure. He reluctantly followed, glancing around the room with the flashlight on his phone. 

The temple was beautiful. Precisely cut stone with murals painted in a dark brown color, and small artifacts perched on a central dias. Jack examined them closely. Placed in the center was one with the image of what looked like a monster. It had long tendrils and a monstrous mouth filled with teeth. 

“Who are you people?! You’re not supposed to be in here! This is an archeological dig and we could lose our grant!” He spun on his heel, taking notice of a slight curvy woman with bright purple hair.

“Sorry! We came to swim on the beach here. We’ll leave.” He tried to placate her rage, holding up his hands in defense.

She glowered at them as they slowly retreated from the temple.

“What a bitch.” Some dude mumbled as they exited.

Jack rolled his eyes at the man before pausing as they reached the doorway. A man stood on the beach, eyes on the temple and on the people exiting it. He was beautiful, face scarred, but it added to his attractiveness. How had he not noticed this man before? The man gave a smirk and walked forward. “Anything interesting in there?”

“Yeah,” He replied nonchalantly, before shrugging “Unfortunately it’s off limits. Plenty of interesting things out here anyway.”

The man laughed. “Yeah? Mind showing me?”

“Sure. Name’s Jack.” He held out his hand with a smile.

“Nice to meet you Jack. I’m Gabriel.”

The pair hung out the rest of the day, finding they had much in common despite their different upbringings. They boarded the ship to travel back to the mainland, going to their separate rooms.

Jack was grinning. Maybe this vacation thing was a good idea.

\---

He awoke in the middle of the night, itching to pee. He yawned and made his way to the bathroom, pausing as he saw the thick fog outside. How could anyone see through that? Jack felt like the ship was moving too slowly. Dread was a hot weight in his gut. Something felt wrong.

Jack was right.

\---

He awoke on the beach, sun beating down on his pale skin. Jack groaned and rolled onto his stomach, coughing and looking around to see others panicking and running around.

The sky was a brilliant blue and the sea was calm, a far cry from how it had been only an hour before.

The blond stood slowly and brushed the sand off his skin that showed. 

Gabriel was standing near the tree line, watching the people run about. He turned when Jack approached him. "Panicking won't get them anywhere. They're stuck on this island. They need to start thinking to get through the survival situation they're in."

Jack nodded. "You must be former military too." 

"Something like that." He gave a sad smile to the younger man and looked around. "This island has resources, though not enough for this many people for an extended period."

Jack frowned. "We can't just leave people to die."

Gabriel's eyes examined him for a moment. "Of course not." He turned back to the group. "We should raid the ship. It's not going anywhere."

"Yeah. We can strip some of the wood for firewood too."

The pair started getting to work, Gabriel getting things from the ship and Jack calming people down.

The pair were an effective team.

"Well there was one salvageable lifeboat, some food and quite a few blankets…" Gabriel listed things as he pointed to where he put them on the beach.

Jack gave him an update on the people. "Five crew, sixteen passengers, excluding us."

A nod, his face shrouded in contemplation. "Alright." Gabriel nodded and patted Jack on the shoulder. "We'll make it."

And Jack believed him.

\---

It was a day later that people just started disappearing.

They were patrolling the beach for wreckage and when they turned to look, one of the girls they were with was just gone. As if she was never there. Footprints just stopped suddenly.

_ Twenty-one. _

That night they all huddled around a few fires and spoke about the day and their home lives. Jack sidled up to Gabriel, hoping to sap his warmth. He didn't seem to have much warmth to give but let his arm brush Jack's with a sly smirk.

When they awoke the next morning, it seemed like more people were gone. When people asked each other to see if they knew who, it totaled four people.

_ Seventeen. _

Jack was worried. Maybe these people just kept going off on their own. Making stupid mistakes and getting themselves killed and washed away.

"Gabriel, something feels wrong." He looked over to the other man as they sat on the edge of the beach.

"I know, Jack. I feel it too." The older man tried to give a soothing smile. "But we'll make it." He assured him.

Jack knew he shouldn't believe him, but he did anyway. "Thanks Gabe."

\---

The remaining three crew members took the life raft in the middle of the night. Maybe they thought they could go for help. Maybe they broke under the pressure and stole it out of desperation. Jack was sure they had just been abandoned by the only people who knew how to drive the ship, even if it was currently broken.

Jack didn't tell anyone he found the tattered lifeboat a few days later on the other side of the island.

_ Fourteen. _

\---

There were a couple of days with zero incidents. One of the men decided they needed a better view. "That other island isn't far off. I'm a swimmer, I could get there no problem." One of the women suggested.

Before Jack could even protest the idea she dove into the water, heading for that island. They watched before they saw something in the water.

Jack felt a primal fear course through his veins. That wasn't a shark. "Get out of the water!"

Too late.

The thing careened out of the water, a shimmering black opalescent body with matching tendrils, wrapping around its victim. Jack froze at the edge of the beach with a few others, the water seeping red.

They gawked at where the woman had once been.

They should have known the beach wasn't safe either. Two tendrils flew out of the water and grabbed two other people, dragging them into the water.

Everyone ran for the trees, screaming and climbing up quickly. Jack panted heavily, eyes scanning around for Gabriel. "Gabe?" He calls out in concern. He didn't get a response and he felt his eyes burn, but he couldn't cry.

_ Eleven. _

\---

In the morning when everyone got down from the trees, Jack spotted Gabriel and ran over, hugging him. "Holy shit, I thought you were dead."

"I'm fine. Just couldn't respond." He gave a sad smile.

_ 'Shock.' _ Jack thought to himself, so he nodded. "What the hell is that thing?"

Gabriel just shrugged, eyes not looking away from the water's edge. "It's what's been taking people." 

Jack bit his lip. "We're going to die here Gabe."

The man finally looked to the blond. "Jack, we're going to be fine. I promise."

And somehow, Jack still believed him.

\---

At twilight, someone couldn't take it anymore and ran screaming into the ocean. Soon screams of madness were drowned out by screams of terror and pain.

As they sat around their fire, far from the edge of the water but still not in the trees they lamented their survival.

"Come on guys there's still twelve of us left." Jack tried to keep up their spirits. "We can figure something out."

A man named Jeremiah snarled. "Are you fucking stupid? Howie just ran into the fucking ocean. There's eleven of us."

That couldn't be right. Jack had just counted. His eyes scanned over their rag tag group again, eyes landing on the twelfth person. He recognized her, but not from the ship. It was the archeologist from the temple.

"Twelve." He slowly pointed to her. How had they not noticed?

She gave a smile and stood, her eyes glowing a deep purple. "You will not escape this island unless you return what has been stolen. He will not let you go." With that, she ran into the waves and disappeared under the surf.

_ Ten. _

\---

Everyone eyed everyone else suspiciously after that. Someone was a thief that had gotten everyone else killed by some lovecraftian monster.

The only one Jack trusted was Gabe. He knew he had never gone into the temple to start with so he could be trusted. 

Gabriel seemed quieter now. His eyes scanned the people around, keeping a vigilance that seemed too calm given their situation.

"Hey, you alright, eldritch monster notwithstanding." He tried to joke.

The man turned to him, eyes alight with the glow of the fire. It made him look almost alien. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just wondering who stole the figurine."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, me too."

A pause.

"I lied, Jack."

"About what?"

"There's another life boat. I said there was only one and the crew took it, probably eaten by that creature."

Jack blinked in surprise. "Why hide it?"

"Didn't want anyone taking it like the crew did. It was smart to hide it because someone would have made off with it already."

Jack understood the rationale. "Whoever is left can take it." Gabriel nodded. "Okay. I won't tell anyone until we figure this out."

Gabriel gave him a small smile.

\---

Food was scarce now. They needed to fish or hunt, but there were only small birds and maybe a few mammals on the island. The ocean wasn't an option. The small pond in the center of the island in the forest didn't have any fish large enough to eat.

People were fighting and Jack was staying out of it. Gabriel hadn't been eating and it concerned the blond. "Gabe, you should eat."

He shook his head. "I'm fine. You need it more than me." The man gave the other a small smile.

Jack frowned. "Gabe-"

"Don't fucking touch me!" The pair jumped to their feet and ran over towards the group. They seemed to be taking sides, pushing and shoving each other.

"Whoa! Calm down." Jack stepped between the two groups. "What's going on?"

Jeremiah, always the instigator pushed Jack. "Back off you fuck."

Suddenly they descended into chaos, punches being thrown and shoving each other. Jack got a punch right to his face and he went down, stunned for a few moments.

He noticed how close they all were to the water before they did. "Stop!" He lurched forward only to watch almost everyone be grabbed and dragged into the depths.

Unfortunately enough, Jeremiah was the one to scrabble away from the beach. He ran into the small gathering of trees.

_ Two. _

Gabriel helped Jack up and hummed. He was quiet for a few moments before finally speaking. "You didn't take it, did you."

It wasn't really a question. Jack frowned and looked at Gabriel. Why was he asking with that expression? Why…

Oh.

"You weren't a part of the trip."

A sad smile graced Gabriel's lips. "No. I wasn't. Your ship came to my sacred islands and I would have let you all go if he hadn't taken what was mine."

"You're the creature? How? You've been with us...with me."

"You humans don't notice a lot of things when you're traumatized and tired. It's easy to slip into the ocean and come out like I'm running from it. I also had the help of my followers." He hummed.

"The woman with the purple hair?" A nod. "Jesus."

"Not quite." He gave a grin. "If you get me that figurine, I'll help you escape. The greedy rarely give up their stolen goods easily."

Jack watched as Gabriel waded into the ocean. Jack watched as he took that monstrous form he'd seen tear people apart.

Gabriel promised escape if he helped.

And he believed him.

\---

Jack marched into the trees. It didn't take long to find the man who had caused all this grief.

Jeremiah was sleeping. "Wake up." He nudged the other. "Where is it? You took it."

The man glared. "Why? It's mine."

"It's the fucking reason everyone is dead! Innocent people are dead because of your actions, including your girlfriend! Now give it back before you die too!"

"It's all that's left!"

Jack pushed him down and tried to search his pockets. He earned another punch, but he expected it. He slammed their heads together, dazing the man before snatching the figurine out of his pocket and running towards the beach.

Jeremiah stumbled after Jack, but Jack was military, he ran track. No one could keep up. Not until a rock hit the back of his head and he went down face hitting wet sand.

He felt woozy as the dying campfire outlined Jeremiah's frame. The tendrils behind the man made Jack grin up at the bastard.

Jack took sick satisfaction as he watched the man get torn apart, blood coating the sand as he was given the most horrific death yet.

_ One. _

Small statue in hand, Jack sat up as the sun peeked over the horizon. He saw the object more now. It was the statue he looked at in the temple. The monster that had hunted them all. Gabriel.

He walked to the edge of the beach as Gabriel's true form sat there. Jack set the statuette on an extended tentacle and felt as one caressed his face tenderly.

The form sank back beneath the waves, Jack's eyes never gazing away from its form until he could see it no more.

\---

He retrieved the lifeboat from the ship and cast off from the island with whatever he could. A current seemed to pick up the boat and rush it out to sea quickly.

As he watched the passing clouds overhead, he began to laugh. Soft, mirthless laughter as he thought over what had happened. A soft splash caught his attention, and he looked over the side of the boat to see a very familiar face.

"You know you proved yourself Jack. You could come down here. Be like us. Be with me." Gabriel swam next to the boat casually.

"I could?"

A nod. "You can make a home with us."

Jack dove into the water and felt tendrils wrap around him like he was fragile. A mouth met his own, and he smiled.

He believed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Heeey my shoddy contribution to Mermay. Based off a NoSleep podcast episode I really liked. Just made it way more gay.
> 
> vgsfshade6116 was my wonderful beta ♡♡♡  
> clockpunkgamelover is their tumblr


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